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“Will you marry me?”
“Yes,” I choked out, and leaned in to kiss him again, but sat back when I felt him reaching into his pocket.
“Grey, there’s something I’ve wanted to ask you since we were thirteen years old. I will admit I was fucking terrified to ask you; for weeks I tried to say something and it just wouldn’t come out. We’d been best friends for so long by then that I kept thinking I’d lose my friend if I actually asked, so I stopped trying. Then one morning I decided I’d rather ask and risk losing you than never tell you.” His lips tilted up in a quick smile and his eyes shifted down to the folded-up paper in his hand, then up to look at me again. “I knew I’d chicken out again, so I wrote it down to give to you at the dock. But when I got there, I saw Ben kiss you, and when you finally saw me, you ran up to me to tell me that he’d asked you out. You were so excited that I put the paper back in my pocket and never showed it to you . . . but I kept it.”
I wiped at my wet cheeks, and stared at him in amazement. “What is it, Jag?”
With a deep, steady breath, he gave me another tight-lipped smile and handed the paper over. It looked and felt old, and for long seconds I couldn’t open it—I could only stare at it, in disbelief that Jagger had written this more than nine years ago and had kept it all this time. I slowly unfolded the note that had obviously been opened and refolded countless times, and my heart stopped when I read the words.
Can I keep you?
“You were going to give me this the day Ben asked me out?” Jagger nodded and my chin started trembling even harder. “You’d been trying to tell me this, and I’d had no idea. And you kept it all these years? Why didn’t you say something then?”
“It wasn’t our time then,” he said simply.
I hung my head and kept my eyes on the paper. I couldn’t believe what I was
holding, and I couldn’t believe that he’d chosen those words for me. But it shouldn’t have surprised me, this was Jagger we were talking about; and when he started explaining the note, I couldn’t stop smiling even through my tears as the memories came back to me.
“Do you remember when we were nine and you kept watching Casper over and over again . . . and making me watch it with you?” Jagger laughed hesitantly. “I hated that movie because it was like five or six years old, and about a little boy ghost who turned into a teenager, and I thought that was creepy, but you couldn’t seem to get enough of it. But I still watched it with you every time because I loved the way you smiled like Casper was talking directly to you when he asked the girl while she was sleeping if he could keep her. Four years later I still thought about that smile of yours, and even today I can remember how you seemed to melt at that line every time.”
I read the words on the small paper over and over until my tears made it too hard to see. Jagger took the note out of my hands and placed it on the stairs before cupping my cheeks so he could wipe at my tears.
“So, Grey, can I keep you?” he whispered, and a soft sob left me as I threw my arms around him, crushing my body to his.
“Yes. Yes, you can. I love you,” I choked out, and his arms tightened around me.
“I love you too, Grey LaRue.”
He held me there on the stairs as I finished crying and we talked about the movie that I was now dying to watch again—to Jagger’s horror—and started talking about when to get married.
“Oh my God! I need to tell my parents! I need to tell Graham and Janie, and you need to tell Charlie.”
Jagger grinned sheepishly and his eyes squinted like he was somewhat worried about my reaction to something he was about to say. “You mean the people who are going to be at Wake in about half an hour to celebrate with us for breakfast?”
My mouth popped open, and I waited to see if he was going to tell me that he was joking. “Are you serious?”
“Yeah, but if you don’t—”
“They’re going to be at Wake? All of them? They knew about this?” I asked rapidly and excitedly.
“Yes to all of that. Do you want to go?”
“Of course I want to go!” I kissed him roughly and pushed off him so I could run back up the two steps we’d made it down. Just before I hit the bathroom, I whirled around to find him behind me, and launched myself into his arms. “You’re amazing. I love my ring. I love the way you asked. I love the note. I love you. This morning has been incredible and more than I could’ve ever asked for. Thank you for asking me, and thank you for knowing I would want to share this with all of them.”
“Thank you for saying yes.” He kissed the side of my head and released me. “Now go get ready.”
I squealed and ran into the bathroom to freshen up and get ready. Calling Jagger in there, I made him take a picture of my arms before I jumped in the shower to clean off the charcoal. When Jagger stepped into the shower behind me minutes later, I quickly forgot about Wake, our family and friends, and everything else except for Jagger, how in love with him I was, and how he felt against me and inside of me. My legs were wrapped around his waist and my back was pressed to the cool tile of the shower wall while hot water pelted down on us and Jagger moved slowly and easily inside me. The differences in temperature and the feel of his body were an exhilarating combination, and I gripped at his shoulders like only the touch of him under my fingertips could keep me tied to this earth and this moment.
Jagger unwrapped my legs from his body and we stumbled out of the shower and bathroom, and over to the bed. We’d barely landed on the bed before Jagger was pressing his thick length inside me again, and I fused our mouths together to quiet my moans as our slick bodies moved against each other and he quickly brought me to the edge. He hooked one of his arms under my leg, and my mouth left his as my thigh slid up near his shoulder when he steadied himself on the bed with the same arm, and began moving faster and deeper.
My stomach heated and tightened in eager anticipation for what was coming, and my eyes locked with Jagger’s when he reached down with his other hand and ran his fingers over my aching clit. My mouth opened on a soundless moan as my body shattered around him, and minutes later he came with a deep groan, his arms shaking as he tried to keep himself above me before finally lying down on top of me.
Our chests moved roughly against each other as we lay there, and I lightly ran the tips of my fingers over his back to keep him there when he started moving away. I wasn’t ready to let go of him yet. Once we both calmed our breathing, he brushed his mouth across mine as he pushed off me and rolled over onto his back.
“Now you can get ready.”
I smiled and rolled my head to the side to look at him. “Best reason for being late . . . ever.”
